East Toledo resident Kevin Carswell says “it will be kind of strange not hearing my brother moving around up there (upstairs)” in the duplex they shared on Potter Street.

Kevin’s older brother, William L. Carswell, 54, was murdered on Saturday afternoon, December 11, at about 3:55 p.m. at the resale shop Kevin owned at 134 Main Street in East Toledo. The home they lived in is also owned by Kevin.

“I remember back when I was real young I had a cousin that was murdered. We haven’t had this in our family in a very long time. This is just so crazy,” Kevin said.

“I had just rolled past there. Every time I was coming from somewhere on my way home I would ride by there. Everything was alright. When I rolled past, he was sitting at the desk. I saw his girlfriend, saw somebody else. There wasn’t anything going on. It looked peaceful. I just went home to get ready to go Christmas shopping. Then at 4:10, 4:15, I get the phone call,” Kevin recalled.

“The Woodville Mall sucks,” according to two local women who answered Our Voice on the Street poll last week.

Not so, says Juanita Jones, the new mall manager who took over at Thanksgiving time.

Jones wants you to know repairs to the oldest mall in Northwest Ohio have been underway and some new stores have moved in. The Christmas display at center court featuring Santa Claus is “amazing, the best in years,” she adds.

First, the repairs. Nearly all skylights have been repaired, except for those in the Elder Beerman concourse. The carpet is gone and granite flooring to replace it is on site and will be installed when the final roof leaks are fixed, sometime before the spring, weather permitting.

Genoa officials will begin the search for a new police chief soon but remain mum on former Police Chief Randy Hill’s abrupt departure.

“I hope to begin advertising soon,” Mayor Mark Williams said Monday evening. “I don’t know if we will be able to advertise before the first of the year – but I would like to.”

Hill officially left office Dec. 10. Williams informed village councilmembers of the resignation five days earlier at the regular session of council. Hill had turned in a resignation letter to the mayor who oversees the chief’s position.

Prior to the resignation, Hill had been placed on administrative leave Nov. 16. The mayor, Administrator Garth Reynolds and councilmen contacted would not comment specifically on reasons surrounding Hill’s leave and subsequent departure.

Oregon City Council last Monday approved professional engineering services to Tetra Tech for the design of the Wheeling Street Bridge Replacement project, in an amount not to exceed $62,000.

The two lane bridge goes over Otter Creek, between Starr Avenue and Seaman Road, according to Public Service Director Paul Roman.

The $750,000 project is being funded mostly through the Ohio Department of Transportation’s Municipal Bridge Program, according to Roman. “We received a grant in which ODOT will pay 80 percent of construction, and we have a 20 percent local match,” he said. The project is expected to start in the summer of 2012.

Most of our other construction is done for the year,” he added. “This is probably one of our biggest construction years ever. But a lot of our work is done. We still have some projects going on through the winter. Right now, we’re just going through the budget process for future capital improvements. A lot of it is stuff we couldn’t finish this year. About one third of the projects are just carrying over from 2010. I don’t have as many projects next year as I have had in the past.”

Environmental organizations in Ohio last week were applauding the delivery of recommendations for implementing the Great Lakes Basin Compact to Gov. Ted Strickland and the state legislature but were calling it only a “critical first step” that lacks significant guidance on how to implement a water management program.

The Compact, which went into effect two years ago and requires each Great Lakes state to develop conservation and water management programs, contains broad guidelines, leaving the states to fill in the details for implementation.

Kristy Meyer, director of agricultural and clean water programs for the Ohio Environmental Council and a participant in the board’s negotiations, said many critical issues remain unresolved and will require a lot of work in the legislature next year.